this, after days of fierce fighting between israel and gaza millitanlts. an attempt at a brief cease fire was unsuccessful this morning as palestinians unleashed a fresh round of air attacks. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is not backing down. >> the past 24 hours israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate rocket and missile attacks on its civilians. >> well, nbc's martin fletcher is live for us in tel aviv. martin, what's the latest? >> reporter: lynn, good morning. following up on netanyahu's threat. last night 16,000 israeli reserve soldiers were called up for the army. the okay was given to 30,000. they've already called up half of that number. many of those will be moving south where the army has already matched on the border. they're moving down tanks, armored personnel carriers and trooms. by the way, among those reserve soldiers called up it also included officers and soldiers who are experienced whose specialty is dealing with enemy civilian populations. again, yet another hint, if you like, that an israeli ground invasion is ve